Marsh Harrier - dip

This morning Morton Bagot hosted a Marsh Harrier and a Red Kite, and I wasn't there to see them. The lucky guy was Mark Islip, but apart from the fact he saw them at 8.30 (per John Yardley, who is currently in Wales) I don't know any other details.

What I do know is that there are three types of dipping. In ascending order of pain they are:

1. You are at work or on holiday and hear about a bird on your patch, but can do nothing about it until you get home. This only really hurts if you are away for a week and the bird stays for about four days.

2. You are on site but the bird flies through and is seen by someone else, e.g Common Tern last week. Only really upsetting if the bird in question was a Bee-eater or something else that you know will never occur again.

3. You were planning to go this morning, but at the last minute change your plans. This is what happened to me this morning. My reason for not going? It was raining. How pathetic.

Instead, after emerging from the doctor's surgery with the text from John burning a hole in my coat pocket, I decided to stick to my secondary plan which was to call in at Haselor scrape and then go and survey Morton Bagot from the road after the rain had stopped in the lame hope that either birds would still be there. They weren't, but at least I ticked a new local birder, Keith Fletcher, at Haselor Scrape. He had been watching three Redshank chicks, but only one remained for me to see.

The Marsh Harrier was the second for the site, the previous one (which I did see) was an adult male in April 2011.

Congratulations to Mark for a terrific find.

Haselor Scrape

News reached me this week of some pretty impressive chick counts at Haselor scrape. Both Johns counted 30 Lapwing chicks several days ago, and John Y had four Redshank chicks there on Saturday.

I was tempted to see for myself this morning, and although far fewer Lapwing chicks were visible (still alive?) I at least saw two of the four Redshank chicks.

Hiding in the vegetation

showing well

Springwatch ?

Monday sees the start of another series of Springwatch on the BBC. For all its faults (let's go over to our Beavers) etc I do have a soft spot for these programmes. Where else do you get to watch live wildlife and original footage of British creatures from the comfort of your own armchair? My only gripe is the fact that it airs in summer, not spring.

I visited the patch today, a glorious sunny morning, and found it had all the sleepiness of early summer. The only new arrivals I could detect were at least four singing Reed Warblers (a new record count) from three localities around the site. One of the two in the reedbed was incorporating some excellent mimicry of a Blackbird alarm call into its song.

Back at the flashes the single Little Ringed Plover shimmered in the heat haze on the furthest flash, and as an homage to Springwatch I recorded the following storyboard:

A cock Pheasant struts innocently into the middle of the field.

Alone at last

Suddenly the Lapwings attack.

Duck !

Lapwing ?

After several minutes of this the Pheasants (it turned out there was also a hen Pheasant hidden in the grass) flew off. A victory to the Lapwings, three pairs of which were defending at least five chicks. Another pair, possibly two, were defending territory on the fallow field behind me.

Back at Netherstead Farm I was hailed by Granny P, who produced her grandchild, Sam (apologies if I have remembered his name wrong). The little lad assured me that he was four years old, his granny having  said he was nearly five, and I was asked to let him look through my scope. Young Sam has been watching birds since he was first handed a pair of binoculars, and evidently loved it. Birds being birds there was absolutely nothing to show him, so I settled for some distant apple blossom and he quickly picked up on how to see an image through a scope by looking down into the lens to avoid just seeing black.

I really hope he does develop an interest in wildlife. Four years old might seem a bit young to start, but that was my age when I got the bug so why not?

A blast from the north

This evening I went birding in spite of the strong wind blowing from the north and bright conditions, my least favorite combination. One big plus was that John had fixed the thread on my scope so I was keen to photograph something, anything really.

The Flashes offered a summer-plumaged Black-headed Gull and a Little Ringed Plover. Nah! The pool produced my first subject as I found there were now two pairs of Greylag Geese with goslings.

Awwh !

This is the first year that Greylags have nested on the pool, so two broods is pretty good. Moving on I tried a distant shot of the female Wheatear which is still present (and blurred), almost got a shot of a hovering Kestrel (I did get the shot but the subject was heading out of the frame), and finally failed to even see a loudly singing Lesser Whitethroat.

Back at the road I eventually got a dodgey picture of a Swallow sitting on wires.

The Swallow about to fly off

I also had a nice chat with one of the farming twins from Church Farm. Like all the farmers I have encountered around here he was very friendly and interested in the wildlife on his land. He seemed to know about the blog, and if he took exception to me accidentally walking his dog last week, he didn't let it show.

Dipped a first for the patch !

This morning I was joined by John Coombes. He has the distinction of finding the best bird at Morton Bagot ever to be successfully twitched, namely the Great Grey Shrike in February 2010. It was, he told me, only his second ever visit. I was keen to meet him in order to put a face to the name.

We ambled from Netherstead Farm past about three singing Reed Warblers and maybe a couple of Sedge Warblers until I got a text from John Yardley to say that he had a Redshank on the back flash. This was a patch year tick, so our pace quickened a fraction.

Then it quickened a lot as John rang to say that a Tern had flown in from the north and was circling overhead. Alas, we were still too far away and by the time we rushed past a female Wheatear adjacent to the pool I knew I was going to dip. John was doing his best to relocate what he was sure had been a Common Tern, but the game was up. At least I can no longer go around saying the patch has never even had a Tern.

We saw the Redshank, and at least three broods of Lapwings although counting chicks accurately in the long grass of the flash field was nigh on impossible. We ended up back at the dragonfly pool where I finally saw my first odonata of the year in the form of an unidentified immature damselfly.

Just before we packed in, however, an adult Peregrine flew past and landed on a pylon. The first here for a couple of months.

I am using John Coombes' visit as an excuse to post an old photograph I took of the Shrike on the day it disappeared (coincidentally by the way).

A blast from the past

I departed earlier than normal to watch the cricket (good move), while John Yardley kindly took my scope and tripod away to see if he can drill out the base and put in a new thread.

A couple of noteworthy garden birds yesterday were a very late Siskin over, and a party of 33 Swifts.

Wednesday May 15

Yeah, I guess I should have gone. I wouldn't have got there much before 7pm, and of course there was no way the Great Reed Warbler would resume its migration on a cold wet filthy night. Unfortunately the GRW hadn't heard that, and duly left.

Today was National Sanderling day, or so it seemed. Even Earlswood had one. But after tramping round with a little friend I was unable to shake off, I failed to see anything better than three Swifts and a Little Ringed Plover.

My four-legged friend

At least the dog enjoyed the walk. More so than the local Hares who had a bit of a work out.

John texted from Haselor scrape, where he was knee deep in Lapwing chicks (10) and had also seen Redshank, Shelduck and Common Sandpiper. I went anyway, and saw all the above plus Little Ringed Plover and three Tufted Ducks swimming in two-inches of water.

My future patch extension?

I think this place will definitely get a decent bird before the year is out. (That should put the kybosh on it).

Stick or twist?

There was a time when news of a West Midlands tick could have had me dropping everything and heading for the bird without a second thought. This sort of thinking has left me with a pretty impressive West Mids list of 292.

However, age seems to be dulling my need to add an extra tick to that particular book. At 11.14am today a text alert sounded on my phone as I sat at my work station. A Great Reed Warbler had chosen today to appear at Grimley near Worcester. Twenty minutes later an old friend, Terry, rang to give me detailed directions, and to tell me that everybody who was anybody in the county had seen it.

Cue the weather forecast. Torrential rain was set to arrive during the afternoon. I can no longer ask my boss for permission for an impromptu holiday at extremely short notice. In short, I was stuck and faced with the prospect of a soggy evening staring at a small reed covered pond.

Stick or twist..... I stuck.

I have not had much luck with Great Reed Warblers. It is somewhat tenuously on my British list thanks to a brief flight view of the long staying Welney bird back in 1981. Sure, I could hear it singing alright, but a view is required for a lifer. Many years later I twitched another stayer, this time at Netherfield lagoon in Notts. We picked a foul day, such as today, and were unable to see the bird, though it sang well for us.

The West Midlands has had only four, the first two were pulled out of mist-nets at Brandon in Warks in the 1970s , the third, also at Brandon, tantalised would be twitchers, including me, the morning after its discovery in May 2005. It was apparently a female, and I didn't see it. The one I should have got was at Barton in Staffs in 2007, but I had been birding all day and felt knackered. Stick or twist. I should have twisted. It was gone next day.

I know I should get up at dawn, but I can't be bothered. If it's there in the morning I will go tomorrow evening.

With this kind of thinking I doubt I'll ever get to 300.